Page 53 of Little Wing (Shades of Fairhaven #1)

K nowing that Luca was behind bars should’ve made me feel more at ease.

He was the dark cloud hovering above us as we waited for the date of his sentencing.

I knew that Lotus wouldn’t feel true peace until all this was over.

Granted, there was some hope after she went back to the police for further questioning, and to have her testimony officially recorded.

The detective seemed hopeful that her participation could speed things along and put her in a better position against her brother.

I just knew that having to recount it repeatedly was resting heavily on her shoulders.

Despite everything that she had to go through, she still managed to share her warm smile with me.

I didn’t know how she did it.

All I knew was that I needed to do something, anything, to help her.

So, what did I do instead of working on a budget spreadsheet for Little Wing?

I researched vampire practices. Reading about these practices and listening to the things that Lotus was being asked about made me realize how little I knew about our own people. I only knew what Elias taught me.

When Elias gave us permission to either follow him or leave after the treaties were signed, there was no breaking of our tether to him.

He was and always would be our maker. Our tether had just been extended.

I held no ill feelings toward him, not like Lotus did toward her brother.

Elias never drank from us after we were turned.

He gifted us with his blood and that was it.

Meanwhile, the image of Lotus’s neck, bent and bleeding, infected my mind. The sound of her pleading to be let go replayed over and over until I gasped, realizing I had cracked yet another cap off a pen I clutched too tightly.

“Fuck,” I growled, tossing the cracked cap into the trash bin.

“You good there?” Mateo asked from the other side of the room.

Sometimes I honestly forgot he was also in the office.

He could be loud when he needed to be around others while he was networking or celebrating, but when he needed to concentrate on something important to him, he could practically be invisible. A true vampire in every sense.

“Yeah, I’m—” I began before a knock at the door stirred me.

Quinn opened the door wide enough to wedge herself between it. “I can hear you growling from out there. Just making sure you two aren’t watching porn on our very public Wi-Fi.”

I rolled my eyes and shut my laptop before spinning in my chair, mainly to turn away from her. As the door shut behind her, I hoped it meant she went back out to the reception, but that was apparently too much to ask. I could hear her pulling up a spare chair to my desk.

“Don’t worry," she started as soon as I turned around. “I’ve left the front desk covered.” She crossed her arms and leaned back into her chair. “What’s going on here?”

Glancing between her and Mateo, I buried my face in my hands. “I don’t even fucking know. I’m trying to figure out if there’s anything I can do to help with this sentencing.”

Quinn brushed her frayed copper hair out of her face and glanced at her partner, who eyed her just as cautiously. Their glances said plenty before my brother’s chair scrunched beneath his weight .

“Claim her,” Mateo stated casually.

“No—hold on!”

“Hear him out, Silas,” Quinn urged me as I began to grip the arms of my chair tightly, leaving small punctures, like freckles, all over the leather. Noticing this, Quinn sighed and motioned once again to my brother. “Mattie, you better use a full sentence and fast before he goes feral.”

“Right.” Mateo leaned forward and pushed himself up to his feet.

He stepped behind Quinn’s chair, placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Listen, her brother turned her and clearly that connection has resulted in some shit that she was forced to run away from. I mean, do you blame her? The dude is a nutcase. Feeling that sort of connection and not losing your mind? Lo’s a lot stronger than she lets on. ”

“The goal is to free her.” I was fuming. “I’m not going to get her out of a tether just to trap her in another. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Even I could see the way Quinn visibly winced.

“Quinn, I—”

“Is that what you consider me and Mattie? Master and servant?” Quinn asked, as she held more bite in her tone.

No, no, I didn’t think that. Not in the slightest. They loved each other.

They made the decision to stand by each other for decades, even as Mateo and I were still figuring out who we were as individuals after moving overseas.

Quinn and Mateo found each other despite all the odds against them, and they decided to get married just like mortals did.

On top of that, they cemented their devotion to each other by claiming each other .

“He may be her maker, but that connection isn’t the only one that can anchor her to someone.

You know this,” Quinn continued. “Or is it that you don’t want something like that with her?

Silas, you’re over two hundred years old, nearly three hundred.

You’ve never settled with anyone aside from a quick fuck.

This is the longest time I’ve seen you so enthralled with a woman. ”

“I second that,” Mateo chimed in. “And I’ve known you the longest.”

True… everything they said was true. I couldn’t stop picturing myself tasting her.

I wanted her blood in my mouth as I kissed her and loved her.

The first time we had sex; I had to keep my mind from wandering to what it would be like having a future with her.

To have someone beside me at last; who smiled and laughed and lived.

But as much as I wanted it, would Lotus want to rush from one tether to another?

Quinn was right. Luca was her maker, but I was her lover, her partner. And she loved me.

Noticing my brain on the verge of short-circuiting, Quinn got up from her chair and held out her hand for Mateo to take.

“Think on it. That’s the best thing I can recommend.

Because it helped me, Silas. Mattie’s anchor helped me when I left my nest. Even after all these years, the tether I feel the strongest sense of comfort in is the one I have from our claiming. ”

No matter how much Mateo and Quinn joked around, they had genuine love for each other.

Something I felt I could have with Lotus should she feel comfortable and willing.

I wanted Lotus in a way that went beyond sex, beyond the feeling that words could barely define.

Even telling her that I loved her didn’t feel like it was enough.

Swimming in the thought, I pulled out my phone to see if she had texted me.

Nothing beyond a quick check-in that she was alright and heading home after her shift at work.

I glanced at the time and grabbed my coat before making my way out of the office to head back home.

I was riding the high of possibility, hoping that Lotus wouldn’t shoot me down, and that I hadn’t interpreted our relationship differently. The way I felt and what I wanted for us was unlike anything I had ever considered before.

I’d need a fucking drink to get through this…